South Carolina ranks among the highest in the prevalence of chronic diseases such as stroke, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, all of which disproportionately affect African Americans, who comprise 30% of the population statewide, and 40% in the rural communities in this state. Hence, we are uniquely positioned to conduct translational research to address health disparities, and this type of research is particularly important in our State. The University of South Carolina has strong institutional support, a culture of collaborative research across colleges, units, and departments including our affiliated hospitals and organizations that strengthens our research effort. We propose a one-year planning process to design a Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR) in which basic science, clinical, and translational researchers, along with stakeholders from hospitals, community organizations, industry, faith-based institutions, Universities, and government form teams to develop specific translational research programs. We will develop, around specific content areas, research portfolios and infrastructure that facilitate the movement of new knowledge to the bedside and then the community. Integral to this vision is a training program for clinical and translational scientists that combine coursework in research design and dissemination with applied experience centralized within the new CCTR. A critical component will be the evaluation methodology used to measure performance criteria and ultimately, the effectiveness of the CCTR. The Specific Aims of this proposal are: 1) to design a research administration core comprised of four integrated functional components: administrative; methodology and informatics; projects and grants management, and community outreach. 2) To design an integrated program to train clinical translational scientists to include mid-career clinician and clinician researchers, a "College of Mentors", post-doctoral fellows, curricular development, new graduate programs in translational research, and research experiences for undergraduates. 3) To design a virtual clinical translational science laboratory, by developing a process for integrating investigators and key stakeholders around core clinical research areas. 4) To design an evaluation process to measure the effectiveness of CCTR planning. We expect the CCTR to begin operating as an efficient center for translational research, by the end of the funding period. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]